Amid the escalation in the Ukraine war and Russia’s traditional autumn draft, large-scale raids targeting potential conscripts have begun. The human rights organization Prizyv k Sovesti (“call to conscience”), which assists individuals to avoid military service, reports that the raids in Moscow in November were the most extensive ever documented. People were detained and taken either to police stations or directly to the military commissariat.

“They come to where people are registered [as living], quickly identify people using facial recognition and track them down at other addresses, catch them at hospitals, use data from educational institutions,” the organization stated in a post on its Telegram channel.

Prizyv k Sovesti urges those eligible for the autumn draft to be cautious, avoid living at their registered address, refrain from using the metro and “be prepared for the possibility of being conscripted by force.”

In mid-November, conscripts started receiving “electronic draft notices” via text message, along with warnings that failure to report to the military commissariat would result in a travel ban, according to the exiled Russian media outlet Important Stories.

The current draft stands out not only for its scale and severity but also for the fact that major raids are now occurring beyond Moscow and St Petersburg – which were the focus during partial mobilization in the fall of 2022 – in Russia’s regions. Ivan Chuvilyaev, the press secretary for Idite Lesom (“take a hike”), a project that helps Russians avoid military service and leave the country, highlighted this in an interview with the exiled Russian television channel TV Rain. He fingered Chelyabinsk Region as a telling example.

“The goal, in this case, is not to bring the person to the military commissariat office but to formally rush them through all the procedures as quickly as possible and carry out what is called a ‘same-day draft,’” Chuvilyaev said. “By the time he [the draftee] is found, he should ideally already be with a military unit, have taken the oath and possibly even signed a contract.”

Chuvilyaev also noted that raids are carried out by the police that, according to him, have been given “complete carte blanche and are doing whatever they want.”

Police have raided youth clubs and bars. One example is 19-year-old Alexander S, who received a draft notice in a popular Moscow club, reported the Telegram channel Ostorozhno, novosti on December 1. Officers checked his passport, took a headshot, issued him a draft notice and photographed him holding it.

In the city of Penza, police detained a conscript at the military commissariat for two weeks in November, despite his presenting a medical certificate confirming a condition exempting him from service. Officers tried to pressure him to sign a contract and send him to a military unit, according to Sever.Realii, a regional news project by RFE/RL.

“He [the officer] promised us the world, asked me to talk to my son and convince him to agree to be drafted. He said my son would be placed in a good unit and, since he’s a lawyer, they would have him do paperwork somewhere,” the mother of the young man, Dmitri, told Sever.Realii.

Sever.Realii explained that Dmitri has hypertension, which exempts him from service. On his first night at the commissariat, his condition worsened, but he was denied access to medical care.

This is not the first time conscripts have been forced into the army despite being unfit for service for health reasons. The Russian journalistic project Okno recounts the story of a St Petersburg resident who, while on a business trip to Moscow, was detained right at his hotel, despite having a medical exemption. He was released, but only after he was forced to sign a draft notice and agree to come to a Moscow commissariat later.

In Bashkortostan, a conscript successfully defended his right not to serve in the military due to health reasons in November, reports the human rights group Shkola Prizyvnika (“conscription school”). He is flatfooted, yet doctors were ready to send him to the army anyway.

“The surgeon, despite my statements and numerous documents confirming the condition, managed to determine with his eye that I do not have third-degree flatfoot,” the young man told Shkola Prizyvnika.

Ultimately, the court ruled in favor of the conscript, which is very rare.

Though by law full-time university students are also exempt from military service, they are being drafted. Lawyer Kaloy Akhilgov shared on his Telegram channel such a story: 19-year-old Artemy Krugovykh, who was detained by police on November 29 in Moscow, handcuffed and taken to a military processing center.

“In essence, the actions of the military commissariat and the police are an abuse of power. The conscription plan is being fulfilled by any means necessary, while draftees defending their right to a deferral are treated like criminals,” Akhilgov wrote.

Labor migrants have also been targets of the recent raids. The Russian regional news outlet VN.RU reported that in Novosibirsk, around 45 foreign workers were detained and taken away from a local café, the stated goal being to “counter illegal immigration and identify persons who have acquired Russian citizenship and failed to register for military service.”

The Moscow news site MSK1 carried the story of a police raid at a hostel in Krasnogorsk, just outside of the capital, where officers looked for migrants who had not registered with the military commissariat. According to official sources cited by MSK1, police issued 26 draft notices during the raid.

In August, Vladimir Putin signed a law enabling the revocation of citizenship for recently naturalized citizens – primarily foreigners from Central Asia – if they fail to register for military service. In October, Important Stories estimated that at least a dozen individuals had already lost their citizenship under this law.